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Invisible Files on MicroSD Card?

All of the sudden, all the files on my SD card went missing! I was transferring music and video files to the device over USB (as a storage card, per the custom ROM USB/PC feature) and after it was done, it showed my card as blank.
I took the card out of the phone (XV6900) and put it into my SD adapter and into my computer. The 4GB card shows that 1.8GB are in use when I go to properties, however, there are no files at all in the root of the drive! Like they are invisible! (Yes, I have Windows set to show all hidden and system files, so that is not the problem)
How do I get my files to reappear? It looks like they are not actually deleted! i don't get why this happened all of the sudden

you can try an undelete program and check the sdcard while in the reader
undelete programs can handle sdreaders just like they can hd's

Rudegar said:
you can try an undelete program and check the sdcard while in the reader
undelete programs can handle sdreaders just like they can hd's
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did that already...it found a ton of stuff that used to be on there, but not the current files.

had the same thing happen to me once in awhile
where the sdcard just get corrupt which is why I keep
an raw copy of it on my computer in case I need to copy it back

Rudegar said:
had the same thing happen to me once in awhile
where the sdcard just get corrupt which is why I keep
an raw copy of it on my computer in case I need to copy it back
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using the same 4GB card as my old phones. this never happened on my Titan or TouchPro, each of which I have for a year or so. I have had a Vogue for 1 week and it has happened twice! does the XV6900 wipe the card periodically or when performing certain actions? even on a ROM update/flash it should touch the SD card when running from the RUU package in windows

Q) how to format FAT32 64gb card ? can't write/delete files.

Was wondering if anyone had any ideas on what I can possibly do??
The card came as EXFAT, but most roms only support FAT32.
I formatted the card to FAT32 which was fine .. but after copying a few files the card now refuses to write or delete files. I can still open and view media that's on it but that's about it. I can't even re-format it, it will say the disk can not be formated or write error. The card isn't corrupt though, I copied around 30gbs of video on it when it was in EXFAT partition before. J
I'm using an SD adaptor into my card reader, but yes I have ensured the lock switch is off.
edit - oh also, when you place the card into the phone it'll say that the card is damaged/blank.
Any help would be appreciated
Cheers,

thanhson87 said:
Was wondering if anyone had any ideas on what I can possibly do??
The card came as EXFAT, but most roms only support FAT32.
I formatted the card to FAT32 which was fine .. but after copying a few files the card now refuses to write or delete files. I can still open and view media that's on it but that's about it. I can't even re-format it, it will say the disk can not be formated or write error. The card isn't corrupt though, I copied around 30gbs of video on it when it was in EXFAT partition before. J
I'm using an SD adaptor into my card reader, but yes I have ensured the lock switch is off.
edit - oh also, when you place the card into the phone it'll say that the card is damaged/blank.
Any help would be appreciated
Cheers,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Make sure you format it in the phone

Every time I place the card in, it will say the card is damaged or blank
Then it tries to format it but then goes through the same loop of saying it's damaged/blank

thanhson87 said:
Every time I place the card in, it will say the card is damaged or blank
Then it tries to format it but then goes through the same loop of saying it's damaged/blank
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
unmount SD card before format SD card

ruscan.calin said:
unmount SD card before format SD card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
alright i'll give it a go soon
cheers

i had experienced the same problem i tried my best using several fomat tools. think almost all the tools in the world....failed and bought a new one.....think its better go for new card

Did you try to format it on Linux? I've experienced some problems with SD cards formated on Windows (assuming that you run Windows )

vjz567 said:
i had experienced the same problem i tried my best using several fomat tools. think almost all the tools in the world....failed and bought a new one.....think its better go for new card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
pretty much - there's nothing you can do. I decided to email Sandisk and here's their response:
I understand that the error that appear after format is “write protected”. First we would like to apologize for the inconvenience.
I understand that you are getting write protection error while accessing the flash drive. The flash drive has detected a potential fault and become “write protected” to prevent data loss. There is no method to fix this. You will need to back-up your data and replace the flash drive.
So you have to RMA it. I'm abit confused because others on XDA have successfully covnerted their 64gb cards to FAT32 without any issues.
Could it be a faulty batch of sd cards?.

new SD card: now error: Application not installed on your phone"

Just moved from a 8 GB to a 32GB card. And cannot use it...
First I unmounted the old SD card on the phone, and put in the new, unformatted 32GB. I then choose to format it in the phone. Its a Galaxy S GT-9003i with firmware I9003XXKPN v2.3.5
It formated fine. Then I unmounted the new card, plonked in the old card and connected the phone in USB mode to the Macbook. I also connected the newly formatted SD card via a card reader, and it promptly showed up, with the correct free space (although there was a directory on it already called LOST.DIR)
I then copied all apps from the phones 8GB SD to the 32GB card, using the laptop (drag and drop). This also went fine and without a glitch. I then shut down the phone, swapped out the SD cards and booted the phone on again. As expected, it went to do the usual Scanning USB memory. It completed. The space appears to be taken up, but all apps that are on that USB are inaccesible. Their icons grey Androids with a small SD logo in the bottom right corner.
All other apps (the ones on the phone) work fine. The SD card can be used to copy files to on the computer and to take pictures...
Phone is not rooted.
PLease help, if you have a solution to this...
Many tHanks

oranabana said:
Just moved from a 8 GB to a 32GB card. And cannot use it...
First I unmounted the old SD card on the phone, and put in the new, unformatted 32GB. I then choose to format it in the phone. Its a Galaxy S GT-9003i with firmware I9003XXKPN v2.3.5
It formated fine. Then I unmounted the new card, plonked in the old card and connected the phone in USB mode to the Macbook. I also connected the newly formatted SD card via a card reader, and it promptly showed up, with the correct free space (although there was a directory on it already called LOST.DIR)
I then copied all apps from the phones 8GB SD to the 32GB card, using the laptop (drag and drop). This also went fine and without a glitch. I then shut down the phone, swapped out the SD cards and booted the phone on again. As expected, it went to do the usual Scanning USB memory. It completed. The space appears to be taken up, but all apps that are on that USB are inaccesible. Their icons grey Androids with a small SD logo in the bottom right corner.
All other apps (the ones on the phone) work fine. The SD card can be used to copy files to on the computer and to take pictures...
Phone is not rooted.
PLease help, if you have a solution to this...
Many tHanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried rebooting your phone? If it still does not work, try to unmount your SD Card via settings and then wait for it to successfully unmount and then mount again
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium

Application not installed on your phone
saywhatt said:
Have you tried rebooting your phone? If it still does not work, try to unmount your SD Card via settings and then wait for it to successfully unmount and then mount again
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, yes tried this one. No luck.... Its a Samsung mirco SD card (Model: MB-MSBGA) class 10
Anyone else..!?

Did u done app2sd in ur phone with the 8 gig 1
Sent from my GT-I9003 using xda premium

No not much.
DONT FORGET TO PRESS THE THANKS BUTTON IF HELPED YOU IN ANY WAY

ah ha
So, I cannot even find the app2sd app under My Apps on the Google Play store... weird. Its also not listing under Manage Applications. Would this really be the cause of the problem!?
Anyone else have any ideas, why the phone cannot load the apps copied from the other SD card...!?!

First of all u have to move all apps from the old sd card to the phone. Or while inserting ur new sd, the apps you moved to your old sd will not work
DONT FORGET TO PRESS THE THANKS BUTTON IF HELPED YOU IN ANY WAY

Mebin Robin said:
First of all u have to move all apps from the old sd card to the phone. Or while inserting ur new sd, the apps you moved to your old sd will not work
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, but I canot make sense of this. Firstly all apps on the old SD card will never fit onto the phone (8GB, vs 2GB space), and secondly elsewhere online they always talk about copying files to the new card and then inserting that instead of the old one....
mmmh...!? Whilst I apprecite your post - its not working for me

When apps are moved to the SD card, it isn't entirely moved to the SD card. Only part of it is, that's why when installing apps the space for apps still decreases. Therefore you should use titanium backup or similar backup programs to move the applications.

bscraze said:
Therefore you should use titanium backup or similar backup programs to move the applications.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks,I had a look at titanium backup, but it requires root access (my phone has not been rooted). I really dont think one should need to root their phone to move from a small to a larger SD card without having to re-install all apps from scratch...!?

oranabana said:
Thanks,I had a look at titanium backup, but it requires root access (my phone has not been rooted). I really dont think one should need to root their phone to move from a small to a larger SD card without having to re-install all apps from scratch...!?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Without root you will not be able to backup data(AFAIK)

bscraze said:
...Therefore you should use titanium backup or similar backup programs to move the applications.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, so I rooted the phone and used Titanium Backup. It created a backup file on the phone memory. I thought, voila, I am good then, popped in the new SD card, formatted it, and did the restore from Titanium Backup... but:
still getting a lot of greyed out files in the application folder and on the home screens... I really cannot believe all this work is needed to swap out SD cards from a smaller to larger capacity! what a pain in the •••

I have the same problem on my new samsung 32gb 10 class micro sd card and still searching for the solution. If anyone have a solution, please, share it for us. Thanks!

martynas393 said:
I have the same problem on my new samsung 32gb 10 class micro sd card and still searching for the solution. If anyone have a solution, please, share it for us. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same problem to, just backed up my old 16gb card to my pc, installed and formatted a new 32gb card in my S4 and copied the data back over and all the apps that are on the sd card are showing up grey.

Ok, after a quick google, i've found that making a clone of the card and then copying the clone to the new card works
you can use HDD-Raw-Copy-Tool to do this (you'll have to google it as I don't have enough posts to post external links)

heathen666 said:
Ok, after a quick google, i've found that making a clone of the card and then copying the clone to the new card works
you can use HDD-Raw-Copy-Tool to do this (you'll have to google it as I don't have enough posts to post external links)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! Yeah that works perfectly! (Apparently there are some "secure" folders in the SD card that start with a period, and the contents do not get copied at all. Those hold the apps and data.) However after using HDD-Raw-Copy it will create an exact replica of the smaller SD card on the larger one and the larger one will appear to be small too, so you must resize your partition or you won't gain anything, your new card will be exactly the same as the old one! You can use MiniTool Partition Wizard home edition which is free to do this: partitionwizard.com :good:

I had the same problem but I was able to fix without extra software. Took old card out of my phone and installed both externally via flash readers to my pc and copied files from one to the other. View hidden files is turned on just in case any hidden items is also copied. This work great for me all apps are accessible now. Hope this helpped

Here is the step-by-step solution: http://www.tomsguide.com/forum/id-2545604/move-data-card-samsung-galaxy.html
There are two ways described to do it successfully:
METHOD 1 uses the xcopy (or xcopy32) command in a Cmd Prompt windown on Windows. The /h switch used on the command allows the hidden and system files to be copied!
METHOD 2 uses a straight copy from old SD card to the new SD card (or from old SD card to folder on computer, then from folder on computer to new SD card) using the simple drag and drop on Windows. BUT YOU MUST HAVE WINDOWS EXPLORER CONFIGURED TO SHOW SYSTEM AND HIDDEN FILES!
Just to be clear, the solution to the problem is trivial. You are simply copying ALL the files from one SD card to another. There is absolutely no reason that copying ALL files from one SD card, including the complete file structure, to another SD card should not work. Your phone can't tell that you switched SD cards. It only knows the files and file structure it can see on the SD card and if they are EXACTLY the same as they were before the switch, your phone should work exactly like it did before the switch except now it will see more free storage space on your larger SD card (which was probably your goal in the first place) AND your phone may possibly even run faster by accessing the data much faster if your new SD card is a faster class of storage media.
YOU DO NOT NEED TO ROOT YOUR PHONE OR INSTALL ALL KINDS OF CRAZY APPS ON YOUR PHONE OR SOFTWARE ON YOUR COMPUTER TO DO THIS!!!
BUT, the key is that YOU MUST ALSO COPY ALL THE HIDDEN FILES and there are lots of them on Android! Everytime I hear of someone having a problem with switchinging to a new SD card, it is because they did NOT copy the hidden files OR their SD card was not properly formatted (FAT32) for the phone.
Please click the Thanks button if this has helped you!

Stock rooted - sd card strangeness

Well, I stock rooted yesterday, and all went well, except for my sd card.
I did the "wipe" stock rooted and removed my sd card before doing so, so that I would lose the items on the sd card. But a couple folders are missing/hiding or I can't see them.
I'm missing the Camerazoom folder that had all my images in it, as well as all the music that I've had on my sd card. I've had the music on that card for over 3 years, and now I can't seem to find it.
Would this be hidden somehow? Is there a Windows app that will let me view all the items on my sd card while it's in the phone? I have the drivers installed and I can peruse my card and my phone, but am not finding either folder using this method.
Please advise and thank you.

Hey wolfgrrl,
Can you directly connect to computer or
use an SD Reader to check for the files.
This will verify if they are there or not.
Sometimes (and I have seen this happen before)
just removing the SD Card (for about a minute) then
replacing it may fix it 4U.:victory:
Just remember to turn off phone first, then remove
battery, then remove SD Card. Reverse order and turn
on phone.
Hope This Helps:fingers-crossed:

Unfortunately, that did not work. :crying:
I don't have a reader for a card this small. Such is life.
ImgBurn said:
Hey wolfgrrl,
Can you directly connect to computer or
use an SD Reader to check for the files.
This will verify if they are there or not.
Sometimes (and I have seen this happen before)
just removing the SD Card (for about a minute) then
replacing it may fix it 4U.:victory:
Just remember to turn off phone first, then remove
battery, then remove SD Card. Reverse order and turn
on phone.
Hope This Helps:fingers-crossed:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

One more time
Try this Go To Settings/Storage/Unmount SD-Card
turn off phone. Turn phone back on and Mount SD-Card.
Hope This Helps

Following today's system upgrade my SD card won't mount

I've had my Idol 3 for a couple of weeks now and I just love it . . . so do my 'green' friends! However . . .
My Idol 3 got a major upgrade today, and now the phone won't permit mounting of the SD card . . . home of many apps!
The option under Settings/Storage is not greyed out, it's just that when I tap 'Mount SD card' nothing happens. I'm also getting a continuous notice, i.e. "SD card safe to remove".
The card was not removed either before or after the upgrade, but since I have had the above problem I have done reboots, restarts and hard reboots, and and have removed and replaced the card a couple of times . . . . I'm at a loss on this one!
Does anyone have any suggestions that will help me get the SD card mounted please?
Many thanks!

Just maybe a very strange coincidence here. I have been using the same 32gb sd card since I bought this phone and never had a single issue with the card or the phone (related to the sd card). This morning I checked to see if there was an update, I did not download or install it (since I'm rooted) but man ever since that moment I have been having f-ed up sd card issues. The same types of problems with it randomly unmounting the card and telling me the card is safe to remove, finding the card unmounted and touching the Mount button does nothing and just now I removed the card and my Chromebook is asking if I want to format it... WTF?
All this makes me wonder if Alcatel secretly installed some updates in the background today even though I did not intend for a system update. Hmmm.

I had similar issues with a sandisk microsd.....with it randomly losing everything on the sd....I switched to a samsung microsd and the issue went away so I think it's just very picky with the cards and you should try different manufacturers...also fat32 seemed more reliable than exfat. Samsung and Adata are two I had good results with outside sandisk which I previously considered the gold standard.

Thanks folks.
At this time I don't think it's an SD card issue unless the update corrupted it.
I mean, it was fine before the upgrade guvnor!

phototraveler said:
Thanks folks.
At this time I don't think it's an SD card issue unless the update corrupted it.
I mean, it was fine before the upgrade guvnor!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Backup the data to pc...format the card in the phone...copy the data back.

Same happened to me on the first OTA update and on this OTA update. I took my SD card out, put in a computer, copied all my files to a desktop folder, re-formatted the SD card, moved all my files from the desktop back on to the SD card once the format was complete and the phone mounted the card no problem. Total PITA and will consume about an hour and a half of your time to do all this. Not sure why this keeps happening on OTA updates, but next time, if Alcatel releases another OTA update, move all your apps back to the phone and remove your SD card prior to initiating an update. Only think I can think of?

Thanks both. Formatting is apparently the only way to go except that my computer wouldn't read the card via the phone.
Soooooo, I have mounted the micro SD in an adapter, and the card is currently being copied to my computer.
I'll let you know how that goes after I've done the format and copied things back.
Maybe just removing the SD card prior to an upgrade will prevent corruptions, or do you think that the upgrade 'needs' the SD card in place?

phototraveler said:
Thanks both. Formatting is apparently the only way to go except that my computer wouldn't read the card via the phone.
Soooooo, I have mounted the micro SD in an adapter, and the card is currently being copied to my computer.
I'll let you know how that goes after I've done the format and copied things back.
Maybe just removing the SD card prior to an upgrade will prevent corruptions, or do you think that the upgrade 'needs' the SD card in place?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As the external sd is considered "optional" there is no reason you can't pull it prior to doing an upgrade to eliminate the chance of it getting corrupted.
If you have TWRP flashed and your situation is like mine was you'd find IT could read the card just fine and adb access while in TWRP copied off the data for me so seems related to the actual rom.

The solution
As some of you may have expected, and suggested, I was able to resolve my issue by . . .
1 Backing up the data on the SD card
2 Formatting the SD card
3 Copying my data back to the SD card
However, the .android_secure folder on the SD card was 'locked' by the phone, so I removed it and using Windows Explorer I copied the contents - all my apps that had been moved to the SD card - manually.
If you go this route yourself, your 'favorites' that you dragged to the home screen will be missing, so you'll have to re-do that process. It only takes a matter of minutes.
I want to thank those of you who responded with suggestions that pushed me all the way to the top of my 'success' mountain. The view is great!
Now if only the upgrade hadn't corrupted my SD card in the first place. Grrrrrr!
However, for those that don't realize it, the Idol 3 is a terrific phone that is soon to increase in popularity and recognition.

phototraveler said:
As some of you may have expected, and suggested, I was able to resolve my issue by . . .
1 Backing up the data on the SD card
2 Formatting the SD card
3 Copying my data back to the SD card
However, the .android_secure folder on the SD card was 'locked' by the phone, so I removed it and using Windows Explorer I copied the contents - all my apps that had been moved to the SD card - manually.
If you go this route yourself, your 'favorites' that you dragged to the home screen will be missing, so you'll have to re-do that process. It only takes a matter of minutes.
I want to thank those of you who responded with suggestions that pushed me all the way to the top of my 'success' mountain. The view is great!
Now if only the upgrade hadn't corrupted my SD card in the first place. Grrrrrr!
However, for those that don't realize it, the Idol 3 is a terrific phone that is soon to increase in popularity and recognition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You might consider installing syncthing and running it on the pc and phone...it uses p2p technology to sync folders between devices....open source version of bittorrent sync. Glad you are back up and running.